Cumulus Networks Connectivity for Containers

October 4, 2017

Cumulus Networks, the leading provider bringing web-scale networking to enterprise cloud, today announced the availability of Cumulus Host Pack, a full suite of technologies that brings the host to the network for visibility and connectivity, enabling organizations to deploy and operate production-ready, web-scale networks for containers and microservices.

The Host Pack suite will also be made available for trial through Cumulus in the Cloud, a low effort, zero cost way to explore these technologies before committing to a full deployment.

Because containers are constantly created and destroyed, and workloads are often moved to different physical machines or migrated to completely different data centers, a new way of thinking about the underlying network is essential to success.

The new Host Pack offering is the first of its kind to address the challenges network operators face in achieving end-to-end network visibility and connectivity of containerized applications.

Many companies have started to consider or deploy containerized applications due to their flexibility, agility and efficiency in comparison to dedicated virtual machines; 451 Research predicts containers will see the fastest growth of all Cloud-Enabling Technologies (CET) to become a $2.7bn market by 2020.

However, the flexibility and ease with which containers can be created and destroyed presents significant challenges in scaling and empowering a network for application deployments:

Dangerous network blind spots: The short-lived, ephemeral nature of containers makes them difficult to identify and track, making consistent, real-time visibility and troubleshooting with traditional network tools virtually impossible. The accessibility of containers also makes it possible to put them on untrusted network segments, leading to dangerous network blind spots.

Increased network complexity: The fleeting nature of containers and microservices demand a simple yet high-performing network that adapts quickly to the ever-changing schema. Network architectures and deployment methods that were developed for virtualized environments in the the last decade aren’t suited for this type of environment, and they impede enterprise adoption of production deployments at scale.

Significant performance delays: Using containers at scale with tools traditionally used only by DevOps teams creates roadblocks and performance delays for network operators.

“As companies look at containers as a way of deploying revenue-generating applications in faster, more agile ways, the supporting networking infrastructure needs to adapt and change,” said Josh Leslie, CEO, Cumulus Networks.

“Until now, network architects have been missing a solution that gives customers a scalable end-to-end network architecture and pervasive view of how containers impact the network. Cumulus Host Pack allows customers to deliver on the promise of containers and microservices by removing operational barriers and enabling them to design a network of web-scale efficiency that is reliable and simple to deploy.”

Cumulus Host Pack enables a path to web-scale networking that supports containers and microservices by utilizing a common toolset of the Linux ecosystem. Because Cumulus Linux brings the host to the network, Host Pack gives application developers and network operators universal visibility and connectivity of the network that is unrivalled by any other existing solution.

“At Mesosphere we understand that deploying modern data-rich applications requires enterprises to adopt new infrastructure that maximizes efficiency and takes full advantage of compute resources in the data center,” said William Freiberg, Chief Operating Officer at Mesosphere. “We’re excited to see how Cumulus Networks will enable companies to reap the benefits of containerized workloads by up-leveling their network with Host Pack.”
(NetEvents)

This entry was posted on October 4, 2017 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Network, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.